The first Friday of the August so the eagerly anticipated return of our night of fast 5ks, QA 5k was back!

The QA 5k race night was back with a bang for 2023 as 166 racers competed over five races throughout the evening. The notoriously fast course of seven and a half laps delivered once again with 74 personal bests, 40 season’s bests and one, staggeringly quick, new course record.

The night concluded with the biggest highlight of all in Race 5, as GB International athlete, Kris Jones, set the course on fire when he dropped a staggering time of 14:21 to smash the course record to take home the glory along with the tasty pot of £250 for first place and the £100 course record bonus.

Kris, of Dundee Hawks, found himself in a small breakaway group early on, as he went to toe to toe with some of the country’s top runners including, previous course record holder, Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Gold Medallist, Owen Miller OBE. As the laps went on the group began to spit out those who could not keep up with the electrifying pace and soon it was whittled down to four lads in contention for the three spots on the podium.

Kris showed his international class and experience as with a couple of laps to go he put in his decisive break to blow the pack to pieces. The break gave Kris a solid lead and with two hundred meters to go he celebrated his emphatic win with a packed crowd lining the route as he broke the tape in style.

Tom Martyn of Corstorphine AAC was the man to follow Kris home, in a huge breakthrough run, as he set a new personal best of 14:32, which was notably also inside the previous course record. Youngster Alastair Marshall of Central AC held strong to see off the challenge of Cameron Smith (Cambuslang) to claim the final spot on the podium in a personal best time of 14:40.

The hard work and preparation that went into preparing the course, from the sweeping of the entire racing line to coordinating with the local council to move all the bins, surely paid off as the top twelve athletes in Race 5 came home in under 15 minutes. A true testament to the dedication and hard work put in by the volunteers to prepare a course worthy of the effort all the runners put in to preparing themselves for the race.

Race 3 was the highlight of the night on the women’s side of things, with course record holder, Annabel Simpson of Fife AC, picking QA as her comeback race of 2023. Early evening predictions thought that maybe Annabel was not to have it all her own way with some other top class athletes travelling from far and wide to have a shot at the champ, the record and the prize pot.

Darrin Pryde of Edinburgh AC broke the tape in Race 3 with a massive personall best, but most eyes were on the intriguing battle only a few seconds behind him.

New to the area, Nancy Scott of Aldershot Farnham & District, began closing the gap on Annabel over the final few laps and the race for the title was on. Annabel was able to hold off the pressure very well as she retained her title with a very strong 16:18, two seconds ahead of the fast finishing Nancy. Eilidh Bell of Shettleston Harriers was the next woman over the line a further 25 seconds back, taking home the third place prize along with a new personal best of 16:45.

The racing in Race 3, as always, was a joy to watch, with 14 of the first 15 athletes setting new personal or season’s bests, showing how old school racing can trump some bigger events when it comes to performance.

There was a classy win for Mark McGuire in Race 4 who worked his way through the pack to pick off the early leaders to dominate in the end on his way to clocking a very fast 15:37. Mark was followed home by a tail of personal best setters with Sam Fernando of Fife AC (15:39) and Moray Pryde (15:41) of Lothian rounding out the top three in the second fastest race of the night.

Neil McCabe took the spoils in Race 2, in a battle that saw the lead change endless times, Neil’s strong last lap put the rest of the racers to bed, clocking his first sub 17 performance as he broke the tape (well he didn’t quite break it as we forgot to lift it for him…) in 16:56. Adam Hart of Dundee RR came home in under 17 minutes as well, with PH’s very own Peter Gibson third across the line in his fastest 5k of the year to date.

It is staggering to see the depth of runners battling it out throughout the night at QA, when to win Race 2 a sub 17 minute performance is required!

Finally, to conclude the round-up of the performances from the night, Race 1 went off with a bang and set the tone for the evening. This turned in to a battle of the women, with the mid-race leader, Alison McNeilly of Dundee RR steaming ahead of the pack. The peloton was not to be deterred though as they closed her down. Kristin Lownie showed a return to form on her own patch as she took control of the race in the final stages and made a break for it with youngster Chloe McClung of Lothian in pursuit. Chloe pushed Kristin all the way to the line but Kristin’s early kick was enough to ensure she took the win in a season’s best time of 19:07. The big chase from Chloe helped her gain another big breakthrough performance with a 19:09 new personal best. Next across the line was Scott Kelman, another with a big personal best run as he clocked 19:14 to round out the top three.

A huge thank you from all involved in QA 5k to all of the racers who came and hammered it around our course and the spectators who lined it all the way around and cheered all night long, creating another great atmosphere. Further thanks go to YouCan Sport for delivering the tunes and commentary on the evening, Community Use Fife for their exceptional hospitality and assistance, PH Racing Club members for all the willing volunteers, Momentum Running Project for the race day supplies and Coull Beans for the much needed coffees.

Thank you to FishyGordon, G-Bax and Mark Webster the fantastic photos capturing the action throughout the night as well as a thanks to Kinross RR for the loan of the race clock for our finish line.

We look forward to returning in 2024, again on the first Friday of August, so mark it in your diary and spread the word. We will endeavour to keep entry prices low again and look to make the prize pots even bigger, so watch this space.

We do racing not pacing, no medals, no t-shirts, no gimmicks, just simple racing, big prizes, and a tonne of personal bests!